Friday, January 23, 2015

Social Media 101: New Social Media Platform - tsū

There is a new social media platform on the block called tsū. Around the second and third week of December both authors and bloggers swarmed and joined this new site that mirrors Facebook in many (okay in like 99.9%) ways. I had known about tsū for a little while before the masses jumped and joined and created an account but was not using it actively. Why get an account if you're not going to use it? To save your user name! Remember, BRANDING is major in marketing and you want to be able to use your name (author's or blog's) and have it be consistent with the other social media outlets/platforms you're on. Nothing worse than typing out your name and get the "That name is already in use"!

So what's the big deal about tsū? Honestly, the biggest draw right now is that it's not Facebook. Towards the end of 2014, EVERYONE was talking at one point or another about the newest "updates" FB pages were going to go through in 2015 and how it was a negative impact to authors, bloggers, reviewers and pages who supported authors by sharing information such as sales. This of course is second to the already hated "limited view" posts get. Enter tsū!

As I said before, it mirrors FB and this includes how it started. Currently you are only able to create a profile and either friend or follow other people. If you're friends, you don't need to follow and vice versa. You don't want to do both as each has a limit on how many you can friend/follow. There is nothing similar to groups or pages, but I'm sure this is something that is being worked on.

Oh before I forget... this social media platforms differs from FB and all the others out there in that you potentially can earn money for the things you post about and having people share. You read correctly. You can get paid for doing what you're already doing. Now, hold on a minute, before you start thinking diamonds or if you're anything like me, book cases and new reading material, know that the royalties you earn are $0.01 - yup 1 CENT per post shared. THIS is the one main "negative" thing I've read about in all the research I did on tsū. Its been called a pyramid scam to a bunch of other scam. Though this isn't the first or only social media platform that pays people that post. They are just not as well known as FB or Twitter and now, tsū. However, with this being said, the majority of the authors and bloggers who flocked to tsū were not doing it for this reason. They want readers/followers/friends to see what they post and use the platform to expand their brand and product (i.e. their books/blogs). I know I joined, not for the potential $$$, but to stay connected and to try a new avenue for social media. Its part of my gig to stay on top of the latest and greatest. Since joining I've "earned" $0.60. It can stay in the bank. :) So if you're planning on joining to make lots of $$, go for it and best of luck! If you're joining to try a new social media platform and hope to network and meet new people, go for it and best of luck!!

Don't worry about having to learn yet another new platform or having to figure things out. Remember, you know FB so you know tsū. Additionally, Parajunkee did a fantastic Tips & Tricks for Tsū that you should check out. She did a fantastic job of breaking things down and providing details about the platform.

One thing I want to point out that is an awesome feature that tsū has that none of the other social media outlets have is the ability to edit images!! THIS is one of the reasons I'm using tsū! I can edit images directly on tsū vs. having to do it ahead of time using a program/software. Granted, the editing is limited to affects and basic editing options (cropping, sharpness, red eye, etc.), but this is more than enough for personalizing/customizing an image :) What do you think of my example below?

Why is being able to edit images such a big deal? Images are powerful on social media! Creating unique images for your posts allow your posts to stand out! Images grab your attention! This is important to know as its a major part of marketing your brand! With that said, I have to caution you - presentation matters!! There is such a thing as "too much" or not a "good graphic". This includes fuzzy, pixelated and out-of-focused images or fonts that were to not easy to read because of style or font size. Additionally, the color contrasts as well. Keep in mind that tsū is available as a mobile app when creating those teasers - font size and style matter!! There will other posts regarding images and how to properly create one for marketing purposes.

Okay, now you have some information regarding tsū and I'm sure that you like the idea of having another venue to spread the word about your books or your blog, should you jump ship and leave Facebook? Oh HECK NO! Facebook is still the #1 social media platform out there and has the largest audiences. Continue to utilize FB as you have so far and start GROWING your audience on tsū. Include your tsū account on your website and share on your social media outlets. You can cross-post your tsū to Twitter and/or FB. By cross-posting on all three social media platforms, you reduce the work load on yourself. This is another perk of tsū!

Hashtags work the same way on tsū as they do on FB and Twitter. Hashtags are a great way to search for specific things like #freebooks or a #giveaway. When you use hashtags in your posts, it becomes more visible to others not only on the social media you're posting on, but on search engines (i.e. Google, Bing, Safari, etc.) as well. There's been a lot of inquiries and confussions on how to correctly use a hashtag for marketing and on social media and we'll be diving into that topic later on!

This is a new platform, have fun! Create unique posts by sharing information about your books and/or blog. Remember, sharing is caring! Teaser images are a great way to promote your books and gain new audiences as well. Also, interacting with your followers is a MUST!!! This is with any social media platform. Its why its called "social", you have to socialize! LOL. Oh and i must take a minute to say this one thing.... people want to interact with YOU! Lately, there's been a growing trend where the "assistant" of the author has been doing over 75% (I really want to say almost 90%, but lets give it the benefit of the doubt) of the posting of the page. The "assistant" identifies themselves with "*insert name" and that's fine to keep the page moving, but I got to be honest... it gets old FAST! Especially, if the "assistant" is posting similar things on other author's pages she's working with as well. Its extremely important to foster the relationships you have with your readers, but when your "assistant" is the one posting instead of you, its rather difficult. Keep this mind when! Your readers/fans/friends/bloggers/etc. are there to engage with YOU!

I mentioned cross-posting earlier and while that is an awesome feature, I also want to point out that each platform (i.e. FB, Twitter, Tumblr, Tsū, etc.) all work slightly different and you'll also want to pay individual attention to each. You'll have people following you on multiple sites... do you really think they want to see THE EXACT SAME THING on all? "But FB hides my posts!" Yeah, yeah... want some cheese with that whine? YES, FB may be hiding your post, but the truth and reality is that the readers/fans/bloggers/friends (how ever you want to categorize them) that TRULY REALLY WANT to know what's going on with you will search FOR YOU. They won't just be happy with what's on their feed! So do some exclusive "FB Only" and some "Tsū Only", you get the idea. Let the exclusive be anything from graphic teasers, cover reveals (Sneak Peak - meaning first thing in the morning and then you can share everywhere else in the late am/early afternoon), excerpts, snippets and of course giveaways! Give me a reason to follow you on your multiple sites!!

Now that you know more about tsū and how it works, I hope you'll join and we can be friends! I truly think this is a great opportunity for all and can be a alternative to FB. As with any website that is growing, tsū will certaining be adding features similar to Pages or Groups and websites like Google and Wordpress (and others) will begin creating apps/widgets/patches to be able to autopost on tsū as well. Until then, GROW your AUDIENCE!!! Focus on how tsū differes from the other social media platforms and ENGAGE!!!

Here is the invitation for tsū again. See you there! Great! Now that you know me over at tsū, how about you get to know some awesome authors and fabulous bloggers!!! Please letme know what you think of this post and if it helped. If you're a blogger, reviewer, author, and want to connect with others on tsū, leave your link in the comments! Don't forget to follow/friend those already listed below!

Hi Lisa!Totally feel you! I was in the same boat the first couple of days after joining. Then I listened to all the advise I've given other authors and bloggers. BE YOU! DO YOU!! Share/Post things you like and enjoy! Things you feel or believe are interesting! When you're YOU you're at your best!

Thanks for your thoughts on Tsu! I agree--posts there need to be unique from those on Facebook in order to give people incentive to check them out. I try to do that. But sometimes when there are so many things to do, all of my social media suffers while I write! But so far I like what I've seen on Tsu and plan to stick around and keep trying to build a following there.

Will share your blog and try to entice more readers over there to check it out!